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Monday, September 6, 2010

JavaOne 2010 Abstract of the Day #2: Polyglot Programming in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

At the end of my previous post (A Fortnight to JavaOne 2010), I provided brief focus on a JavaOne 2010 presentation abstract of interest. I plan to focus on one JavaOne 2010 abstract of interest to me each day until the beginning of JavaOne. This blog post is the second in that series and its focus is the presentation "Polyglot Programming in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)" (S314424).

Andres Almiray is currently scheduled to present "Polyglot Programming in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)" on Wednesday, September 22, at 1 pm at Parc 55 in Divisidero. Here is the abstract for Andres's presentation:

The Java language boasts one of the largest software ecosystems. You can find libraries, components, and servers of all sizes, types, colors, and flavors. This is what's made it the choice language for many. But the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is also open enough to let other languages live in it; languages that provide new features and concepts that the Java language does not have. Some of these languages are even Java friendly. In this session, we'll discover the benefits of adding a bit of spice to your Java development skills by exploring Groovy's metaprogramming techniques, Scala's functional side, and Clojure's approach to managing concurrency.

Like many in the Java development community, I believe that alternative JVM languages will play a huge part in the future of the JVM. I have definitely found Groovy to be a welcome scripting tool in my standard and enterprise Java development. I plan to attend several JavaOne presentations on alternative JVM languages, but this abstract is particularly interesting to me because of its combination of generality (covering multiple JVM languages) with specific illustrative details related to Groovy's metaprogramming, Scala's functional programming, and Clojure's concurrency handling.